 In 1882, the Royal Irish Academy was presented with the Bell of Lough Lene by the Barbavila estate proprietor, Mr. William Barlow Smythe.The bell had been discovered the previous year in Lough Lene by a boy fishing for eels on Castle Island, which was owned by Smythe at the time.Given the close proximity to the Fore Abbey, the estate owner Smythe concluded that the bell possibly belonged to the St Feichin Abbey; During the Viking and Anglo-Norman oppressions, it may have been transferred to Nun's Island, before being eventually being hidden upon Castle Island.